Despite the semantics above your friend did not comply with the Terms and Conditions which they agreed to before committing to the purchase. It's a ..... but with the amount of fraud around now it is understandable. If they had lost the CC they could have made alternative arrangements before leaving for the airport. EK or contracted airport staff should not be expected to recognise the pros and cons of the the alternatives offered on the day. The set of "sensible solutions" you suggest would soon become unmanageable as more and more customers came up with more and more crazy ideas.

Edit to add: the blanked out word began with "b" and ended with "itch" but the forum software must have deemed it out of order.